The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Ime Udoka Breaks Down Rockets vs Lakers First Round Matchup

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Ime Udoka Breaks Down Rockets vs Lakers First Round Matchup

We're going to grab five minutes real quick with the head coach of your Houston Rockets. Tomorrow night here in Los Angeles, Rockets, Lakers, game one of a seven game first round series. IMAIDOCA joining us here on the show. Coach, thanks for the time. Good morning. A thought or two about how the guys took a couple days away, I'm assuming to get away from the sport, and then what it's been like for practice the last few days. Yeah, it's been good.

You know, you don't plan the plan. You get an extra amount of rest time to recover from a long season. mentally step away for a second, physically get right, and then lock into, obviously, a game plan with three, four days of really good practice. You know, during the season, you don't get those daily reps in with the games piling up, but the chance to get those live action reps, go against the game plan, and prepare for one specific opponent instead of nightly opponents. It's a good thing for us. Do you find yourself, because you've been an assistant coach, obviously for a long time learning the business, When you get to a series where you're seeing the same team five, six, seven times,

do you sometimes, does your head shake trying to find something a nuance that you didn't see before? Do you overspend time on tape, or is it an easier scout because it is just one opponent? No, I think you zero in on what you think is going to work well. You take a look at obviously the season and the trends that the team is having and kind of dial in on those, but you always have adjustments, It's playing B, C, D, E, F, whatever it is. And like you said, you spend all this extra amount of time prepping for a team. You start to see things, but you don't want to overthink it, overcomplicated for your guys.

You know what works, so it's worked so far in the season and the things we do well. So it's not always about the opponents, about our side as well, what we want to do well offensively and how they're defending. But I think you definitely have to have the adjustments at hand. But at the same time, you want to try to execute your original game plan of things you've done well all season. I'm going to assume, and look, people are kind of curious asking me, who's EMA going to start? Is it going to be Josh? Is it going to be a man?

Is it going to be Reed? And I've never been to you who ever worried about who starts. Always to me it's about who finishes. But has there been part of the film study and the part of the metrics about figuring out which one of those guys works best for an extended period of time against the Lakers? In general, we know what each guy brings to the table throughout the season. That's the benefit of having that fifth rotating starter that we could see different things. but also adjust on the fly. And, you know, we understand that different opponents lend to different lineups

and we have benefits, pros and cons from all the guys that start, whether it's Reid, Tari, Josh, whoever. And so we're throwing in on that. And like you said, with me, as always, it's who's finishing, who's playing well, and what combinations we feel are doing great out there. And so starting is one part of it, but whoever plays in the meat of the game at the end of the game is honestly more important.

What is it like for you, balancing, whether it be the starting rotation or anything that is going on about wanting to trust your process or if something's not working to try to decide, like as far as sample sizes and trying to figure out what is just maybe some bad luck or maybe some is bad process in terms of rotations or anything in a playoff series. Yeah, I mean, you understand, you know,

sometimes lineups out there that don't work. A team of specific people or players can be a victim of the line. lineup and it's nothing they did specifically. So certain lineups are better together and certain are not. And so I think in general you look at that, you're not just looking at a guy's plus minus and not looking at the circumstances surrounding it. And so for us, yeah, we've had all season to look at things. Like I said, I think we like a lot of things with certain lineups.

Some aren't as good, but some comes down to offense, defense, and situational basketball. Rocket Tech coach, Emaiddocha with us here on Sports Talk 790. Of course, with Fred Van Vleet and Stephen Adams out, you're just going to need everybody to play well in terms of making a deep playoff run. But I think especially it has been key for you guys in this run for Alperin Shingun to play up to his All-Star level. What are you seen from him in terms of an improvement, especially on this winning stretch you guys have been on lately? Yeah, he's been very aggressive.

You know, for him, he was going through a lot of injury situations and, you know, being banged up. nothing he couldn't play through, but it's stuff that definitely hampers you on a game-to-game basis. And he pushed through him. Obviously, he played an all-star level all season, but getting back to his consistent level is what we're going to need going forward. And I think he's feeling much better. Obviously, this rest time will benefit him as well.

But looking forward to him having a huge series and impacting the game all the ways that he does. EMA, real quick for let you run, we had the Lakers announcer on earlier, and he thought the missing piece for them to kind of stay competitive in this series would be a guy like Luke Kinnard with, you know, LeBron having to do a lot of the heavy lifting. What, in terms of your study of them,

without Luca on the floor and without having Austin Reeves, are there some other intangibles that your guys are keeping an eye on, obviously? Definitely. Anytime some major players go down, other guys will step up and kind of take on that responsibility. I think Karnard has been one of the biggest pieces. Another handler out there for them besides Marcus Smart that has done a lot.

He had triple double already. in a game. His usage is way up. But him, we have to Murray all these guys, numbers have gone up, aggressiveness have gone up, shots have gone up, and you understand that. When two guys have Reef and Donch's level go down, you're going to have to make it up by committee,

and those guys are being extra aggressive and understanding what they need to do to help their team. All right. Lastly, I mentioned we had John Ireland on, and he brought up the fact that Nate McMillan's a defensive coach for the Lakers. You obviously had a chance to play with him. What's it like going against a guy that was once the man

that was controlling your time in Portland for a while. It's been great every time whether Nate's head coach, assistant coach, getting in touch with him, you know, he was a guy who gave me my first real opportunity in the NBA and, you know, I owe a lot to him, but I saw something in me, not only as a player where I started that whole season in Portland for him, but also as a coach, he was a guy who mentioned to me that I would be a coach in the future. So whatever he saw with the way I played, the way I thought the game, he kind of put the bug in my ear as far as that.

and, you know, love to catch up with him all the time and I always give him his flowers for what he did for me in my career. But he must be defeated, Eme. There's no doubt about that, correct? Yes, indeed. All right, thank you for the time, Coach. We'll talk to you tomorrow.

Appreciate it. All right, that's Eme Adoka, joining us here on Sports Talk 790. 1228 is a time, and again, Ross, literally I'm looking at the bus. They're about to walk on the bus right now, so I appreciate him joining us. Yeah, he's great. Yeah. So, and he wasn't afraid. I mean, it's funny, we talked to John Ireland,

and if you missed the conversation earlier, He discussed that Nate gave him his opportunity to play a bunch and then for his hometown team and then they said, well, we're going to move on. And so, EMA could have been a lot worse about her saying, hey, screw you. But I think you appreciate it. But it's interesting that Nate was the one that put the bug into EMA being a coach. Interesting.